Bosch's sales surge nearly 24% in China last year

Bosch posted a nearly 24 percent jump in sales in China last year amid rapid growth in the country’s new energy vehicle market and accelerated industrial upgrading, it said today.

However, the German engineering and electronics company is conservative on sales in China in 2018 “due to rising geopolitical risks and economic uncertainties caused by trade tensions” between China and the US. The group expects sales to grow only 2-3 percent annually in China this year,

Bosch generated sales of 113.4 billion yuan (US$17.8 billion) in China last year, up nearly 24 percent from a year ago.

China remains Bosch’s largest single market outside its home market, accounting for over 60 percent of sales growth in the Asia Pacific region, said Peter Tyroller, a management board member at the company.

Although China’s auto market expanded by the slowest pace since 2012 overall, sales of new-energy vehicles in the country soared 53.3 percent to 777,000 units last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

“That has bolstered our performance last year as mobility remains the key sector of our business in China,” Tyroller said.

Bosch’s industrial technology and smart city businesses also grew rapidly as China accelerated its upgrading in manufacturing and consumer industries last year, he added.

Around 90 percent of Bosch’s products in China, especially Internet-connected industrial parts and sensors, were sold domestically rather than exported, he said.